Hepititus C ?

Originally posted by buckky
A friend of mine was just told that he has Hep C. I know nothing about it. Does any one out there have any info on it? I would appreciate any feed back on this subject.

Hepatitus C

Description: The hepatitis C virus (HCV) is a type of hepatitis that is mostly transmitted intravenously, through a blood transfusion, sharing needles while using illegal drugs, or an accidental "needle-stick" in a health care setting. Hepatitis C often leads to chronic liver disease.

Symptoms: Hepatitis C can progress to chronic hepatitis usually with no early acute symptoms. Symptoms of progressive, chronic, viral hepatitis may be subtle. Some patients develop pain in small joints in the body. The symptoms of chronic autoimmune hepatitis range from minimal to severe, including fatigue, jaundice, fever, and weight loss. The liver and spleen are often enlarged. In addition, patients with this condition may experience skin disorders, and the abdomen or legs may be swollen due to the accumulation of fluid.
Number of Americans diagnosed: 4.5 million

Long-term problems/treatments: In some patients, chronic hepatitis B or C can lead to long-term disability or liver failure before they experience any symptoms at all. Liver cells are destroyed between the portal tract and the central veins in the liver, and progressive cell damage can build a layer of scar tissue over the liver, resulting in cirrhosis. In such cases, the entire liver is threatened with malfunction and failure.

Originally posted by buckky
A friend of mine was just told that he has Hep C. I know nothing about it. Does any one out there have any info on it? I would appreciate any feed back on this subject.

All Hepatitis diseases are diseases of the liver. Hep C is viral and is generally associated with blood transfusions and drugs abuse.
However, since it is carried in the blood there are a million ways of contracting it.

It is the disease that causes most liver failures. There are three stages to the disease: Mild, central and chronic.
Mild and central have very little liver damage, but do have HCV RNA in their blood. This means they would hardly react to anti-Hep C drugs.
Then there's chronic. Chronic is the extreme form and is quite deadly. The majority of chronic Hep sufferers have HCV RNA in their bodies and have probably suffered from hep C before, in one of the milder forms.

This is from a medical site:

A distinct and major characteristic of hepatitis C is its tendency to cause chronic liver disease. At least 75 percent of patients with acute hepatitis C ultimately develop chronic infection, and most of these patients have accompanying chronic liver disease.

Chronic hepatitis C varies greatly in its course and outcome. At one end of the spectrum are patients who have no signs or symptoms of liver disease and completely normal levels of serum liver enzymes. Liver biopsy usually shows some degree of chronic hepatitis, but the degree of injury is usually mild, and the overall prognosis may be good. At the other end of the spectrum are patients with severe hepatitis C who have symptoms, HCV RNA in serum, and elevated serum liver enzymes, and who ultimately develop cirrhosis and end-stage liver disease. In the middle of the spectrum are many patients who have few or no symptoms, mild to moderate elevations in liver enzymes, and an uncertain prognosis.

Chronic hepatitis C can cause cirrhosis, liver failure, and liver cancer. Researchers estimate that at least 20 percent of patients with chronic hepatitis C develop cirrhosis, a process that takes at least 10 to 20 years. After 20 to 40 years, a smaller percentage of patients with chronic disease develop liver cancer. Liver failure from chronic hepatitis C is one of the most common reasons for liver transplants in the United States. Hepatitis C is the cause of about half of cases of primary liver cancer in the developed world. Men, alcoholics, patients with cirrhosis, people over age 40, and those infected for 20 to 40 years are more likely to develop HCV-related liver cancer.


http://digestive.niddk.nih.gov/ddiseases/pubs/chronichepc/index.htm

I hope you and your friend do well.

#y posted by LivingLegend[/i]
Isn't the cause often that people eat the wrong food? Or is that A?

I don't know really, all I know is that a good friend of mine went to Easter-Europe and had to take some injections before doing so.

Olav

Hep A is the one you catch from food and you gat vaccinated against hep a and b,however i don't think there is a vaccine against hep C

Originally posted by chaswray
Actually Hepatitis A is transmitted by humans. The contaminate the food by handling it and then another human eats the food and ....:'( I'm not positive but I think A can be transmitted by kissing etc.

you can get Hep A from ice cubes very frequently in hotter countries

Originally posted by dan182
when i 14 i got yellow jaundice, dont know if that is A,B or C.
pretty nasty well sick for 2 weeks but after that was fine.
had to lay off dairy products for a year as well.

oh and for some reason i was told to drink lots of coke

dan

jaundice come from eatting too much dairy products especially eggs